A University of Rhode Island professor has an…interesting…theory about the popularity of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
Kyle Kusz, a kinesiology professor at the school, says the six-time Super Bowl winner, three-time NFL MVP and All-Pro selection and 14-time Pro Bowler is popular because of white supremacy.
Kusz shared his theory in his book, “Making American White Men Great Again: Tom Brady, Donald Trump, and the Allure of White Male Omnipotence in Post-Obama America,” which was published earlier this month.
Kutz theorized that Brady became popular due to the rise of “white rage and white supremacy,” according to Fox News.
Brady’s relationship with the media and President Trump is analyzed in the book, Fox News reports. Kusz highlights a 2015 Under Armour commercial which depicts thousands of Tom Bradys working out and tells the audience to “Rule Yourself.”
Kusz says the commercial “would not seem out of place in Leni Reifenstahl’s infamous Nazi propaganda film, ‘Triumph des willens.’”
It was that specific commercial from 2015 that drove Kusz to analyze Brady further, Fox News says.
“I decided to research Trump and Brady’s public performances of their white masculinities and how they connect with broader debates about race and gender politics after a student in one of my classes brought the Under Armour commercial to my attention and it piqued my interest,” he said.
The professor, a New York native who received a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also cites Brady’s failure to denounce Trump and his intense diet as evidence of how his “white masculinity is repeatedly constructed.”
